Caboose

Woke up feeling a bit grotty due to the previous nights beers, had breakfast and got on the bus. Today we were going back to Christchurch, some people were finishing their trip here (just doing the South Island loop). I’d already done enough sightseeing in Christchurch so I spent the afternoon doing my laundry, reading and watching films.

The next day the bus up a load of new people and myself and we set off for Kaikoura, known for its whale-watching activities. After weeks of sticking closely to my very tight budget I decided to treat myself to a whale-watching trip. Whale Watch Kaikoura, a company owned by the indigenous Kati Kuri people of Kaikoura, runs the trips out of the former railway station. After boarding the shiny new catamaran we sped out to sea for a bit, then spent a while stopped with the captain listening for whales using a hydrophone.

This was repeated a few times before one of the local whales finally surfaced and spent a while resting on the surface before his next dive. Most people rushed up onto the top deck to take pictures, even more so when he decided to dive again. After this we started trying to find another whale and had an exciting high-speed trip bouncing across the waves when the captain got a tip-off over the radio. Again, we were all out on deck snapping away.